1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to enhancing the flow properties of compositions comprising thermoplastic components, and in particular to enhancing the flow properties of compositions comprising thermoplastic components and flame retardant components.
2. Description of the Related Art
For many electrical or electronic applications, thermoplastic polymer compositions need to meet specific flame retardancy (FR) requirements, such as UL-94 V0 or V1. Attempts have been made to improve the flame retardancy of such compositions by adding a bromine-containing polymer in combination with a synergist such as antimony oxide (Sb2O3). Attempts have also been made to eliminate the dripping of flames by adding small amounts of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to thermoplastic polymer compositions.
However, each of these attempts to improve flame retardancy or to meet flame retardancy requirements suffers from one or more of poor flow, which is not admitted to have been known in the art by inclusion in this section. Even partial bromination increases the stiffness of the polymer chains, thereby increasing the glass transition temperature of the polymer and generally lowering the flow properties of compositions containing the flame retardant additive(s) (the FR package) compared to the original composition. The flow properties, in particular the viscosity, of compositions comprising thermoplastic polymer components affect the processability of the composition. Therefore, enhancing the flow properties of compositions comprising thermoplastic polymer components, and especially compositions comprising thermoplastic polymer components and brominated polymers, would be highly desirable.